User talk:Pecoes
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But most importantly, have fun! :) Happy editing! -- Sarah Manley A great place! Let us hope that our foundation will spring a promising beginning :). Qvaestor 12:28, December 3, 2011 (UTC)Qvaestor Indeed he is. Let's hope that our mods won't explode as much as Kang's inventions, though. Flying is alright, though ;) Qvaestor 13:07, December 4, 2011 (UTC)Qvaestor Hey. When you have time, could you write a short tutorial on basic scripting? I'd like to get some things cleared up on that and I'd rather have it sooner than later. Thanks. Qvaestor 21:59, December 12, 2011 (UTC)Qvaestor Hi Qvaestor! That's a rather large topic... Depending on the amount of previous programming knowledge you have maybe even a huge topic... But I can tell you the the three most important things right away: #The scripting language is a subset of C. The most notable (and the most painful) difference is the absence of arrays. #The prototypes of all built-in functions can be found in the file nwscript.nss which is in your override folder. There are also small bits of documentation for each function. As you will see, when you read the file, the scripting language actually dates back to the games Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic. There are quite a few protoypes of legacy functions in nwscript.nss. Their names always start with ZY_ or ZX_ and none of them work. #Since the scripting language has remained unchanged in many ways since the NWN days, you can use the NWN Scripting Lexikon as an additional reference. If you have specific questions about scripting, post them here in this wiki's forum, please. I'll try my best to answer them! Pecoes 22:51, December 12, 2011 (UTC) Well, bascially what I'd like to do is attach a script to a dialog entry that will choose, at random, one of three replies/possibilities. For instance: "Hello." could lead to: "Yes?" or "How can I help?" or "Is there something you want?" That's just a simple example of course, but you get my point. I certainly know this was possible in Baldur's Gate, and I *think* that it could be done in KoTOR as well, however I have no idea if Jade Empire allows this, though I see no reason why it shouldn't. Anyway, thanks for the info. I'll have a look around the script files, something will come to me eventually ;). ---- I hope it didn't sound like I wanted to brush you off. But you did ask a far too general question. That dialog thing however, that's a specific question. Now we're talking :) This might work: int StartingConditional () { return d3() 3; } Compile this script and attach it as a conditional to the first and the second of the three dialog options. Leave the third one without conditional. The first option will be chosen if the three-sided dice lands on a three. If not, the same dice is rolled for the second option. And if that's not a three either, the third option is the fallback. (That's untested code though!) --Pecoes 01:22, December 16, 2011 (UTC) Apparently there is a compatibility problem between my nwnnsscomp and Jade Empire's nwscript. When trying to compile my desired script into .ncs, I get this: nwscript.nss(7104): Error: Function parameter without a default value can't foll ow one with a default value. nwscript.nss(7318): Error: Syntax error at ";" Error compiling nwscipt.nss Did I do something wrong or does nwscript.nss has to be manually corrected like the one in KoTOR 2 had to? Oh and, I do have nwnnsccomp in the same folder as nwscript.nss and my own .nss, and the spelling error at the end of the code is a sic. 21:38, December 16, 2011 (UTC) Qvaestor Oh yeah! I remember now. Almost a year ago - when I used nwnnsscomp for the first time - I had the same problem. You can use the nwscript.nss from my mod if you like. It's already corrected. Otherwise, here's line 7104: int SetInitialCombatCameraAngle(object oObject=OBJECT_SELF, float fCameraAngle=0.0f); And line 7318: void DestroyCrustEffect(object oCreature, int nEffectID); --Pecoes 00:54, December 17, 2011 (UTC) Actually, I do use your mod. Did so from the very beginning. It is the reason why I am here ;). Apparently 7104 was already corrected, but 7318 was not. It really doesn't matter. Your manual line replacements worked, and so did the code you provided (and consequently my dialog). My long-time dream of modding Jade Empire is starting to become true. For that, you have my gratitude :). I hope you will not mind if I ask you some scripting questions from time to time, it is a topic in which I have virtually no experience and your help is very much appreciated. Thanks again! Qvaestor 16:55, December 18, 2011 (UTC)Qvaestor I hope you will not mind if I ask you some scripting questions from time to time Sure. No problem. But next time you have a question, post it in this wiki's forum and not my user talk page, please. I think the user talk should only contain behind the scenes chatter and nothing that might be interesting for outsiders as well. --Pecoes 19:34, December 18, 2011 (UTC) Fair enough. Speaking of outsiders... do we have any? I doubt opening the wiki to the public now would do much in the way of resurrecting the modding community - or for that matter, creating a new one. We need far more material to spark interest, though that is just a suggestion. Qvaestor 03:17, December 25, 2011 (UTC)Qvaestor Ha. The wiki's been open to the public all along :) But are there other active JE modders out there? I doubt it. It's better to plan for that eventuality though. If you build it they will come. Maybe. Also: One of the few bits of programmer's wisdom I acquired is: Things tend to grow beyond the specifications. Never rely on the current scale. Always provide a hook or ten to crank things up a notch. --Pecoes 08:45, December 25, 2011 (UTC) Growth beyond specifications is something I know well, yet I have also seen things I cared about fall into ruin when a larger force decides otherwise. On a far smaller scale, this applies here as well. It is obvious that BioWare neither needs nor wants a modding community for Jade Empire, and the recent "hacking" of the official site - on purpose or not - only aided this idea. However, this can be turned to our favor. It is important to consider whether you should want a large modding community. Small groups have their own advantages, more so than their larger counterparts. If we can find a few interested, talented people and teach them, or remind them, how to mod JE, then they would respect us, listen to our requests, and perhaps in time, do things that we cannot, such as developing a model importer/extractor tool. And in turn, we would only have quality content for JE, and be mercifully spared from the cheap trash that plagues the likes of Dragon Age modding sites. Naturally, the decision is yours. You started this, and I will support you whatever you decide. However, the above is something to consider. Qvaestor 16:58, December 25, 2011 (UTC)Qvaestor There's not much to decide as far as I'm concerned. If this site attracts others to modding Jade Empire: Good! I'll provide whatever assistance I can. Currently I don't quite have the time to write articles (as I'm sure you've noticed), but I'll try my best to answer questions in a timely manner. But if this site fails to attract others, I'll accept that. Bioware doesn't seem to care about what we do. They would have spoken up quite a while ago, I guess. It wouldn't be good for their reputation to go up against modders either. Bioware's fame is in no small part due to the modding friendliness they showed in the past. Come to think of it: I can't think of *any* gaming company that ever sent a modder a ceast and desist letter. Not providing the required tools is one thing, but picking a fight is quite another. That web site hacking incident didn't seem completely plausible to me. That was the time when there gazillions of hacks left and right. I strongly suspect some beancounter at EA (or maybe even Bioware) decided this would be a perfect opportunity to switch off a legacy site that no longer makes them any money. Just say it was those evil haxorz and nobody will mind! Then wait how much of a stink the absence of the site raises and if there's no big outcry, don't turn it back on. Simple as that. --Pecoes 20:44, December 25, 2011 (UTC) I fear you are right. And it would not be the first time a company does such a thing. This looks more like EA's work than BioWare's though, and that would also confirm my theory as to why they do not want a modding community for Jade. Modding expands a game's lifetime, there are people even now who still buy KoTOR 1 and 2 for the sake of mods, let alone Baldur's Gate or NWN. Jade Empire would be the same should a modding community arise, and EA would much rather prefer people to get newer, more expensive games, particularly if they were developed during the time when they already acquired BW. A flawed way of thinking surely, but it's how corporate minds think, and it's by no means new. So I don't think it's about hostility to modding in general, I think it's about hostility to the modding of certain games. Qvaestor 19:26, December 26, 2011 (UTC)Qvaestor Playing as an NPC - Crimson Khana Hi there! I managed to successfully change the PC models to some NPC's such as Sky and the Watcher, but am unable to find the file for Crimson Khana in the appearance.2da. Qvaestor told me to ask you for help. Do you know her file name, or where I can find it? My sentence has a heart, every argument you make for the rest of your life is invalid. ❤ ~Xephinetsa 01:59, January 2, 2012 (UTC) Oh, hi Xephinetsa! What have you been up to? Happy New Year! And welcome to this wiki! :) Crimson Khana is not a unique character like all of the PCs or Sky or the Watcher. She's got a mixed model. Her body is MercenaryBodyguardGuardFemale_f (appearance.2da:104) and her head is CrimsonKhanaMercenary (heads.2da:22) Mixed models take some doing. They have to be reverted before and restored after every movie scene or the game will crash. They lose their head after every transformation. And they also cause problems with the PC's undead appearance in chapter 4. All of these problems can be solved to be sure, but only through quite a bit of scripting. I hate to sound like a broken record, but I recommend to wait for my mod's next version. Sorry I can't welcome you with more satisfying news. :( Pecoes 05:46, January 2, 2012 (UTC) Having said that, I could provide you with a simplified solution. I could bake the restoration of the head into the onload script. Your character would still lose its head rather frequently, but every time a different area or a saved game is loaded, the head would be restored. If you can live with that, I'll write it for you! Pecoes 05:54, January 2, 2012 (UTC) Hi there! I've been good, I'm on school holidays, so I've had a lot of free time. :D Happy New Year! Ah, I see. Thanks for clearing that up! I think I'll wait for your mod, it would be best, I think. Thanks again~ My sentence has a heart, every argument you make for the rest of your life is invalid. ❤ ~Xephinetsa 02:17, January 3, 2012 (UTC) Admin? Could you possibly make me an admin on this site? :D My sentence has a heart, every argument you make for the rest of your life is invalid. ❤ ~Xephinetsa 03:33, January 2, 2012 (UTC) It's not much of a job, you know. Including you, there's three of us. Pecoes 05:45, January 2, 2012 (UTC) Administrator = someone who can edit anything at any time. Wiki = place where anyone can edit anything at any time. Being an administrator on a wiki = Being someone who can edit anything at any time in a place where anyone can edit anything at any time. Seriously. Qvaestor 05:58, January 2, 2012 (UTC)Qvaestor Hm. I was under the impression, that the only thing an admin can do, that a regular contributor cannot, is change the layout and the design. That privilege I would like to reserve for myself, if you don't mind. Is there anything else a regular contributor cannot do? Pecoes 06:07, January 2, 2012 (UTC) I do not mind at all, I never even asked. To answer your question - yes, the layout/design change is the only one as far as I know. And it makes sense to be staff-only; opening your web layout to the public is akin to inviting hackers (xss exploiters in the html/css source code, mostly) to bring your site down. Qvaestor 06:20, January 2, 2012 (UTC)Qvaestor Woa. I'm certainly not worried about either you or Xephinetsa inserting malicious code. You don't have to convince me of your good intentions! This is not about lack of trust. I'm just a bit of a control freak when it comes to the art direction. Sorry about that. If either of you have a good design idea, I would very much like to see it, though :) Pecoes 06:41, January 2, 2012 (UTC) You misunderstood me. I think it is actually very *wise* to keep the administration to yourself, and it has little to do with suspicion regarding our good intentions. As long as there is no urgent need for more people in the staff, the best course of action is for you to hold the reins, more so on a wiki which can be 99% modified by anyone anyways (hence my statement two posts ago). I did not mean to criticize you, on the contrary, it was a decision I endorsed and respected. Never promote someone to a position where they can, even remotely and unlikely, damage something of your own, no matter how much you trust that person. Because if you do so, chances are you will pay the price later. Trust me, I know. I paid that price. Regarding design ideas... hm, it's been many years since I last worked with CSS, but I can try and do something when I have the time, if you wish a more personal, JE-themed background/icons/scrollbar/emoticons/buttons... something ;). While we are on the ideas page, I have a question: is there any plug-in or add-on system for wikia? And if yes, is there a way we could add a private message option on here, similar to the ones used by more traditional forums (one-on-one conversations, so to speak)? Qvaestor 07:05, January 2, 2012 (UTC)Qvaestor There's no such thing as private messages here. We can exchange email addresses if you like, but I will not post my address here. I made that mistake before when I gave Xephinetsa my address in the Jade Empire wiki. Stupid me wasn't aware that the user talk pages are public. Some griefer snagged my email before I could delete it and pestered me for a month. Not to mention the increase in spam... PM me at Bioware's forum or the lucasforums and I'll give my email to you! There is however a chat feature here. It's currently disabled for this wiki. Interested? --Pecoes 07:23, January 2, 2012 (UTC) Ah, I understand. I confess that I thought user talk pages are private as well, until now. And about the e-mail... say no more. My only reason for asking was that I think it is good to have some means of communicating with one another in private, outside of the BW or lucasforum boards. If you wish to PM me on the BioWare boards with it, do so. If not, I understand. For myself, I have no static e-mail address to speak of, not anymore. When I want to speak with someone, I use a temporary one for the duration of the conversations. I prefer private messages to be honest, but if there are none to be had here, no harm done. As for the chat feature... I don't know. Is it disabled for a reason? Can someone hack us through it? If not, then I see no harm in enabling it. If you do so, I will be logged on there most of the time, even though I will be AFK often ;). Qvaestor 07:38, January 2, 2012 (UTC)Qvaestor I don't know if it's potentially dangerous. Nor if it's stable or bug-free for that matter. I'm not certain about its usefullness though. A wiki strikes me as a deliberately slow and ponderous medium that wants you to think carefully about everything you post. Adding a fast medium like a chat to it, is a little weird. But what do I know. I'll enable it and we'll see what happens... Pecoes 08:11, January 2, 2012 (UTC) Fair enough, I understand. I just kind of made a logo and I wanted to add it, but I'll upload it to the wiki and you can add it if you like it. It's nothing special, but I think it would look nicer. :) My sentence has a heart, every argument you make for the rest of your life is invalid. ❤ ~Xephinetsa 02:19, January 3, 2012 (UTC) Well, Qvaestor added the image of Kang to the main page. I think Kang makes a great patron saint for a modding wiki. Or what did you have in mind? Is this image meant as a replacement for the watermark? If so it needs to be 250 by 65 or less. I tried to scale it down in Photoshop but it turned out ugly. It's probably best if you do that from the original image. And could you add Kang? I'd love him to be in there somewhere. :) Maybe The favicon should be his portrait... just thinking out loud... Pecoes 19:36, January 3, 2012 (UTC) Silk Fox Unmasked Hello, I can't seem to find the file for Silk Fox Unmasked in jo5_palace --> a701. I found the files in a701-a, but there doesn't seem to be a file called "N_SilkNM_" anywhere. Does she first remove her mask in the palace? I can't remember. Any help is appreciated. :D My sentence has a heart, every argument you make for the rest of your life is invalid. ❤ ~Xephinetsa 04:18, January 3, 2012 (UTC) The henchmen models are in players.mod. Do you use the ERF/MOD/RIM Editor? That's not the best choice. When you have no idea where a file is located, you should use JEFindRes. Pecoes 19:30, January 3, 2012 (UTC) Ah, okay. Thanks again for your help! Yeah, I did use the ERF/MOD/RIM Editor, so that must be the problem. :) My sentence has a heart, every argument you make for the rest of your life is invalid. ❤ ~Xephinetsa 02:33, January 4, 2012 (UTC) Bug? Is it just me, or is the entire content under "Admin?" completely unintelligible? Even stranger, I cannot seem to leave a new message under there. (or edit anything for that matter) Anyway, what I wanted to say was, that if we decide to alter the appearance of this wiki, we should first host a meeting over at the chatroom to plan this out, so we know what each other is doing. I propose we should take advantage of Jade Empire's steampunk elements, such as the flyers, machines, furnaces and of course, Kang, whilst we design the background, favicon, buttons, et cetera. However, I personally think that we should try to get more people here first before we worry about the wiki's looks. The people at BW boards do not seem too enthusiastic of modding, but maybe we should link this wiki to lucasforums instead? Just thinking out loud. Qvaestor 01:21, January 4, 2012 (UTC)Qvaestor Admin:Dashboard and so forth look fine to me. Maybe because I'm an Admin? The signatures on this very page look like gobbledegook though. Or am I the only one who sees that? It looks like they were doubly urlencoded or something... Pecoes 13:58, January 4, 2012 (UTC) I don't speak gibberish Yeah, I noticed that too. Not sure what's going on there. :/ I think that's a really good idea! You and Pecoes would have to do it, since I have no knowledge in that area. I look forward to what you two come up with. I could do some linking of my own, let some of the JE fans I know about it. Not sure how successful that would be, but I can try. All good ideas, Qvaestor. My sentence has a heart, every argument you make for the rest of your life is invalid. ❤ ~Xephinetsa 09:23, January 4, 2012 (UTC) I didn't publish this wiki's URL anywhere yet, because I felt it needed a little bit more content first. If you guys think it's never too early to go public, I could "officially" announce them at Bioware's board and at the lucasforums - maybe also at the shsforum, giantbomb and worldofplayers... (if you haven't already done so) Pecoes 13:58, January 4, 2012 (UTC)